Arundel Museum’s object of the month

His model of the brigantine ‘Ebenezer’ was built in the 1980s.

Made of wood, its dimensions are: length – 55 cm; height – 48 cm and spar width – 16.5 cm.

The actual ‘Ebenezer’ was built as a brig at the May and Thwaites shipyard in Shoreham in 1860.

It became one of four ‘colliers’ owned by Banfield & Co, the Brighton based coal merchants.

In 1899, it was purchased by the Robinson family of Littlehampton.

Converted to a brigantine, it became the flagship of the company.

Between 1900 and 1915 she was a regular visitor to Arundel, delivering coal to the gasworks and timber to the shipyard.

On July 15, 1917, on a voyage to Dieppe with a cargo of coal, she was intercepted by a German submarine and scuttled using explosive charges.

A sad loss for its new owners, J. Hyland, Shoreham.